A simple and effective way to talk about the Christian faith is to craft speech acts about heroes and villains. For example, I was talking recently to a financial adviser about investing money in a variety of portfolios and my wife, Anne and I became bothered about the dodgy nature of some of the schemes. We're talking about our money being invested in weapons, tobacco and pornography companies. This is how the conversation went with 'Brian'.
When people talk about Christian education, many people think about the archetypal Bible-basher. Someone who attacks you with Scripture.
This is tragic.
In my view Christian education should be about wisdom, discernment and understanding the brutal stories that ruin countless lives. Consider this.
HITEC university is situated about 20 miles north-west of Islamabad in Pakistan. It got started in 2007 and now has more than 1400 students.
This is how it 'sells' itself on its website:
HITEC University offers undergraduate and postgraduate programs in Engineering, Management Sciences, Mathematics, Computer and Islamic Shariah. The up-to-date and well-conformed [sic] syllabi have been tailored to the market needs and are designed to equip the students with the latest developments in their fields of specialization.
Here is an eyewitness account from our great friend Henry Vyner-Brooks as to how the RealityBites talks/seminars went down in Cumbria. He was a superb host along with his wonderful wife Ruth and he helped at every event!
The Marquis de Sade (1740-1814) was a thinker and pornographic writer who would have appealed to Jimmy Saville. We could argue that both men lived in a similar story/narrative. Perhaps we could say that Thomas Hobbes and his many disciples had 'seduced' both men! Mugged by the materialist creed?
I do not know if Saville read the Marquis but their faith in 'nature' is strikingly similar. There is only one difference that I can detect. Saville claimed to be a Roman Catholic but De Sade openly despised Roman Catholicism.
The following story is appearing in newspapers.
Police in northern Greece say a 12-year-old girl has been arrested along with three of her relatives after selling her 10-week-old baby son for 12,500 euros to undercover officers posing as adoptive parents. Police said the girl, her 44-year-old aunt and her aunt's parents, aged 65 and 71, were all arrested on illegal adoption charges.
In the newspapers there have been harrowing accounts of human sacrifice. A five year old Nigerian boy was smuggled into Britain and murdered in a voodoo-style 'muti' ritual killing. He was drugged with a 'black-magic' potion and sacrificed before being thrown into the Thames, where his torso washed up next to the Globe Theatre in September 2001.